


Naruto Character Essays

by Cliodna_Queen_Of_The_Banshee



Category: Naruto
Genre: Analysis, Character Analysis, Essays, Female-Centric, Feminist Themes
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-18
Updated: 2018-05-23
Packaged: 2019-05-08 12:26:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 9,136
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14694204
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cliodna_Queen_Of_The_Banshee/pseuds/Cliodna_Queen_Of_The_Banshee
Summary: A series of analysis essays on different Naruto characters and pairings.Warning: I like both GaaSaku and SasuHina, so those four characters followed by those two pairings will be up first.With that said: Don't like certain pairings?  They'll be labeled in chapter titles.  Just skip them, and read the character essays themselves if you would like to.  Or, if you are curious as to why I like a particular pairing, go ahead and give that a read-through. If you'd like, learn to trust in my character instinct first and then move on to my pairing instinct.Basically, all chapter titles will be labeled, so this is for you just as much as it is for me. I just thought I'd share my Naruto thoughts with the world. Enjoy.I start out with analyses of the two female characters whose developments are cheated the most - so many lost opportunities. And those two characters are Sakura and Hinata.





	1. Haruno Sakura, Part One

Physically

There are two things to note about Sakura’s appearance. The first is that she is widely regarded as beautiful, and the second is that she does not see herself as beautiful.

Sakura’s beauty is noted by more than one boy throughout the series. She has pink hair, big green eyes, a slim body, creamy skin, and a heart-shaped face. Whenever there is a male character prone to romanticism and crushes throughout the manga series, usually Sakura is where their focus goes.

But Sakura does not see herself as pretty. And this is not romanticized or sexualized; it genuinely seems to be portrayed as a bad thing. Sakura admits to herself once at the beginning of the series that she does not see herself as pretty enough to seduce Sasuke, her crush. She notes with dislike the fact that she has no noticeable curves, a small bust and small hips, and an overly large forehead. Interestingly, we know she was at least bullied about her forehead as a very young girl, and it is still such a sensitive note that it is what her old friend Ino picks up on when she feels like being noticeably cruel.

So the question becomes, is Sakura’s dislike of her own appearance because of the fact that she was bullied? We do know she diets as a skinny twelve year old girl. This seems to have been placed in the series to put a spotlight on what is a serious problem for modern young Japanese women, but alarmingly, we never see Sakura overcome her dieting addiction. This is a case of failed or negative character development. That Sakura diets at twelve is noted in the same dismissive vein as “she is a fangirl” and then the series moves on.

Ino is also said in the anime to be into chronic dieting, and is also a fangirl. But Ino is a much more glamorous, popularity-obsessed girl than Sakura is. So one could postulate under our theory that Ino’s desire to diet stems from a different place than Sakura’s - Ino diets because it’s what popular girls do, but Sakura diets from a place of genuine inferiority over previous childhood bullying.

But both strands of dieting end in the same way: both girls are trying to attract the attention of a seemingly unattainable boy by becoming as skinny as possible.

This means that despite Sakura’s often-noted beauty, she does not see herself as good enough in physical appearance as she naturally is. She also thinks the only kind of true beauty is to be somehow both thin and curvy. Sakura knows she is not curvy, and she is thin but is on a constant quest to become thinner. This is another thing that is never dealt with in the series, and another case of failed or negative character development in one of the main heroines. Sakura’s chronic dieting seems to have been placed in the series as a social commentary but sacrificed on the altar of male character development.

In Outfit

Sakura dresses like a deeply practical girl. She does want to be pretty, but she also wants to be practical. Her outfit consists of a loose red dress or tunic that like her body is not particularly sexualized, though red in Japan is considered a highly feminine color. Underneath that, she wears shorts and equipment pouches.

So here we see two sides of Sakura - the feminine girl who wears a pretty red tunic or dress, and the practical one who wears shorts underneath the dress and does not dress herself in a particularly sexualized way.

Sakura’s hair is seen as a sign of her inner growth throughout the series. In the beginning of the series, she keeps her hair long and glossy but impractical as a way to win over Sasuke, her crush. Her long hair era symbolizes the early part of the series in which she is quite frankly useless on the battlefield, the crying girl on the sidelines. Her long hair also is not natural; Sakura’s hair is shown later to always have been short before she formed her crush on Sasuke, who she heard likes girls with long hair. Sakura follows this superficial rule in order to try to win over Sasuke, never stopping to consider whether she might want to date a boy who cares how long her hair is. 

In this era, “Inner Sakura” shows up a lot. “Inner Sakura” is a being of loud-mouthed and aggressive rage. Every time this era’s Outer Sakura puts on a smile or acts cute or in distress, every time she passes up an opportunity to be seen as strong, Inner Sakura can always be found raging inside Sakura, wanting trapped to get out.

But finally, Kishimoto forces Sakura into a corner halfway through part one. He knocks her other two male teammates into helpless unconsciousness and forces her into a situation where multiple people are trying to kill them and Sakura has to defend her unconscious teammates on her own. Sakura fights hard and uses ingenuity, but her lack of training finally manifests itself here. She essentially gets the crap beaten out of her. And just in case we missed the message, Kishimoto hits us over the head with it. He has a much stronger female ninja from the opposing team grab Sakura by the long hair from behind as Sakura is beaten on the ground, ask her why she’s so busy with her hair when she should be training, finally calling her useless and pathetic.

The really cruel part, if the scene is looked into closely? This female ninja has her long hair tied back practically and her specialty is illusions - one of the things Sakura could have specialized in had she chosen to train harder.

Sakura uses one of her knives to cut off all her hair and free herself from the enemy’s grasp, in a symbolic gesture, deciding from then on to become a much stronger character. And become a much stronger character she does. After this, Inner Sakura feels the need to manifest herself a lot less often. All she seems to have needed was for Sakura to show some honest fighting spirit all along.

So there is positive character growth here, but it sends so many mixed messages from a feminist perspective. On the one hand: Sakura learns to channel her own inner fighting spirit, Sakura becomes stronger and more practical on the battlefield, and Sakura is pushed in the direction of being truer to herself. On the other hand: Sakura’s hair was one of her only serious signs of femininity, and she seems to be implying that the only way to become truly strong for a female ninja is to almost cease femininity entirely.

But here again, we get the strong impression of someone with feminine instincts who nevertheless has a very practical side to her. Sakura is not an overly sexualized character, so this combination is particularly refreshing in comics.

In Abilities

Sakura’s most noteworthy ability is her intelligence, an unusual primary trait to give a female comic book main heroine. She proves herself over the series to be strategic (see her trap in the Forest of Death scene previously alluded to), as well as capable of complex medical brilliance and the unusually keen eye of someone naturally excellent at illusions.

Sakura is also capable of enormous natural chakra control. She doesn’t have much in chakra power, but she is capable of fitting her chakra into even the tiniest of spaces. Despite being ruled by her emotions, sometimes to her detriment, Sakura is capable of calming those emotions in order to control her chakra power to even the most minute level. This means she rarely wastes any energy and is capable of mastering any exercises involving chakra control with startling immediacy. In the first chakra control exercise ever shown it is Sakura’s male teammates, and not Sakura, who are ruled by their emotions and frustrations - chakra control is much harder for them. Sakura teaches emotional calm to one male teammate, who ends up demonstrating it to the other.

Sakura has no clan abilities, coming from a very weak family, which is part of the reason why she has no genuine abilities at the beginning of the series. Trying to become a strong and noteworthy ninja at all is very brave for Sakura, though it is never shown why she initially decided to become a strong ninja. This is a case of failed or negative character development unless the answer is simply “for Sasuke,” which would be extremely depressing from a feminist perspective.

Still, Sakura shows a natural inclination for illusions. The two necessary hallmarks are fine chakra control and high intellect. Illusions target the opponent’s cerebral nervous system with finely honed chakra, giving them highly detailed sensory sensations that are not real. In this way, opponents can be bound or put to sleep, psychically and psychologically assaulted, exhausted by being made to run around in circles unknowingly, but they can also simply be fooled with a mirage while the real attack happens from elsewhere.

Sakura is said multiple times to be particularly good with illusions, but she is never shown to do anything with this ability, another case of failed or negative character development. In fact, most of the starkest examples of Sakura in illusive circumstances actually show her falling prey to her emotions after being targeted by a male teammate who is more talented at illusions than her. I am thinking not only of Kakashi’s beginning illusions attack on Sakura, but of Sasuke’s ending illusions attack on Sakura. This not only shows a depressing lack of growth from a character said to have become stronger, it not only shows a character supposedly good at chakra control being ruled multiple times by her emotions… but Sakura breaks out of plenty of strong illusions under less important and less memorable circumstances. She not only notices the Chuunin Exams classroom illusion, but she breaks out of Kabuto’s sleeping illusion as well. She is one of the only people in the entire stadium of international ninja to do so! And she pulls Naruto out of an Itachi-created illusion making him emotional involving Sasuke.

There is really no excuse for Sakura not only never being given illusive abilities… but only falling prey to emotional illusions when it really comes down to the end of the line for her.

Sakura does manifest her strength in one important way, and this is that she becomes a medic. On the surface, this looks like another case of antifeminism - oh, great, the main female character has become a Healer, look at that character growth - but medics in the ninja world are actually pretty badass.

They can not only heal and provide poison antidotes, but they can mix actual poisons, which are particularly effective on their weapons. They can use senbon needles which target precise parts of the anatomy in a way no other weapons can, even putting people into a deathlike comatose state. Tsunade shows herself capable of a particular taijutsu or hand to hand style involving precise nerve attacks to vital areas. Like Kabuto, they can use chakra scalpels usually used in surgery as a kind of hand knives attack.

But then of course Sakura is trained by Tsunade herself, which involves a whole lot more. This includes miraculous regenerative capabilities using the symbol on her forehead, and supernatural feats of speed and strength (throwing someone across a street with a single finger flick, punching the ground and creating a meteorite sized crater). A woman’s temper is frequently joked as being terrifying in Japanese manga, from male and female authors alike, and medics actually seem to epitomize this fearsome female temper for Kishimoto. Both Tsunade and Sakura, her prized student, are said to have legendarily ferocious tempers. For Kishimoto, healing is not only feminine, but deadly - specifically because it is feminine. No deeply masculine characters are ever seen on a medic team, but medics are the most invaluable members of their teams. They keep everyone else alive.

That being said, Sakura’s character growth isn’t complete here either. She never demonstrates any medic fighting abilities outside of the two big ones Tsunade gave her - miraculous regeneration, and supernatural feats of speed and strength. Seeing her use poisons, anatomically precise senbon needles, chakra scalpel knives, or nerve attack taijutsu would have been truly spectacular, especially if combined with the strategic intelligence that is also rarely given the chance to manifest itself.


	2. Haruno Sakura, Part Two

Likes, Dislikes, and Personality Structure

Sakura has been said by Kishimoto to like puzzles, from physical to crossword and sudoku and solitaire, perhaps even little app games. This is a different form of what Shikamaru enjoys so much, strategy games and shogi, Shikamaru being another highly intelligent character in the series. Though it’s not said as much, we can assume Sakura with her high intelligence and medical nature also likes books.

In food, she loves sweets and little snacks but dislikes spicy foods. So while her sweet tooth is highly pronounced, her taste for the sour and savory may not be as much so.

She seems to deeply admire through Sasuke the sort of cold, icy, handsome genius stereotype. So quiet, reserve, and intelligence, as well as a kind of dark demeanor, may be important to her in a significant other. Her early irritation with Naruto’s lower intelligence, colorful, loud-mouth persona is equally pronounced. She appears to dislike people who break the rules and act out of seeming self-centeredness.

All this is very traditionalist Japanese girl, which is much of what Sakura is.

I see Sakura in personality type as an ESFJ. She is definitely an emotional extrovert. She is not only expressive and emotional and talkative, but loud and temperamental. She even imprints onto Sasuke her crush the idea that he is not untalkative or unemotive but simply “shy.” She wants there to be more underneath; she wants someone she can emotionally, intellectually, and verbally engage.

But I also see her as a very traditionalist SJ. She does care about rules and traditions, countless times throughout the series, and traditional Japanese rules and traditions seem to matter a lot to her. An SJ is just the type to be top of their Academy academic grades. She has a very serious bent of mind underneath the surface, and being an SJ would also explain her eye for detail. Sakura is not an airy-fairy, theorist sort of person; she is not that kind of intellectual for me.

And in astrology, Kishimoto has told us she is an Aries. Aries people are fire elementals, very blunt and open with great force of will and fierce tempers, but also an enormous capacity for changeability. Together with her extroverted SJ nature, this fiery, blunt fierceness combines to make a very potentially interesting natural character.

I see two potentials for character growth that were not taken here. First, Sakura’s point of view is not showed more during Kakashi’s lesson that teammates are more important than rules. This is a huge opportunity for character complication and growth, because on a personality type level Naruto is either an SP or NF, and Sasuke is a walking NT stereotype on legs, so Sakura undoubtedly should have felt the most conflict here of anyone.

And second - we never got to see Sakura and Shikamaru play shogi! That would have been so cool!

Back History Before Canon

Sakura comes from parents who fight a lot, as stated in the anime, as well as parents who are not incredibly strong as ninja. They are average people with no abilities who spend a great amount of their time bickering. This makes Sakura’s beginning of series frustrations with them, and with parents yelling at her, to be somewhat more understandable. Sakura does not strike me as coming from a particularly happy or extraordinary or wealthy home.

She is, in Konoha terms, a nobody from constantly fighting parents.

Sakura was also bullied as a young girl. Her appearance was picked on by Ami and a group of other girls, often leaving young Sakura alone in tears. Popular and confident and bossy Ino comes along, becomes her best friend, and gives her a major self confidence boost.

Sakura overcoming her previous bullies is never shown, another area of failed or negative character growth.

Instead, what is skipped to next is Ino and Sakura deciding they both like the same boy - Sasuke, mainly because he’s handsome and cool. Sakura’s true understanding of Sasuke will not come for a long time. One would expect Ino to break up the friendship, but it is actually Sakura, complicating her character.

They both decide to cease being friends, instead becoming rivals and eventually fangirls. They both also decide to do things like grow out their hair, diet, and do other artificial things to try to attract their beloved. I have already talked about this, but will briefly reemphasize the point that a lot of this for Sakura seems to stem from insecurity. She does not seem to feel she is good enough as she is, and may have felt especially insecure standing next to her glamorous friend Ino.

Yet Sakura’s fangirling has real and dangerous results. She regularly calls her ex-friend Ino “pig,” shrieks and competes and bickers with her over ridiculous things, and she hits or shoves Naruto more than once for getting in her way over Sasuke. This cannot be attributed as her disliking his loud-mouthed, class clown, non traditionalist persona, and therefore should stand on its own merits.

Really the only good thing about Sakura pre-canon is that she does have incredible intellect and chakra control. But it would have taken unusual motivation for her to step up and do something with it, having no clan behind her, and this she does not do. She does not seem to train at all before the series starts, though she is proud of her in-Academy accomplishments.

And now we get to the long last part - a complete analysis of Sakura during the canon Naruto series.


	3. Haruno Sakura, Part Three

Canon Analysis

The first time we see Sakura, she is still in full fangirl mode. She is not a particularly likable character, and when Naruto gets her alone under the guise of Sasuke she says that Naruto doesn’t understand her and obnoxiously enjoys tormenting her. This, we already know, is patently untrue. Then later with actual Sasuke, she says Naruto acts the way he does because he has no parents, and she complains about her own parents scolding her. This is technically a true point, and we’ve already stated that Sakura’s home life isn’t easy, but Sakura shows very little compassion for Naruto’s plight of loneliness. Then, the real kicker, she goes on to say that Naruto is lucky to have grown up alone. In this, she shows an enormous lack of understanding not only of Naruto, but of Sasuke.

Sasuke is the one who snaps back at her, by telling her his own pain of loneliness is much greater than her pain of having negative parents, which is a very Sasuke way of putting Sakura in her place. When Sasuke rejects Sakura, she is self reflective enough to realize she has been wrong and that this is probably how Naruto (who has a crush on her) feels when she is cruel to him.

Sakura grows and resolves to become a nicer person. 

Now the real question: does her resolve stay? Not entirely. A few minutes later, she’s yelling at Naruto for goofing off again, and in the next scenes she alternates between snapping that she dislikes him and scolding him for everything he does - even the things she secretly finds funny. So while Sakura does try to grow, Kishimoto pulls her back from the precipice of growth seemingly to lead to more humorous moments. This is a perfect example of negative character growth.

Sakura also seems to revolve herself entirely around Sasuke. When asked by Kakashi to introduce herself, the only thing she says besides “I don’t like Naruto” is to talk about how much she likes Sasuke. According to her, he’s a like, a hobby, a passion, and a dream for the future. Earlier on, with the Naruto she thought was Sasuke, she said all she wanted was acknowledgment from Sasuke - she was desperate for it - and this is the one thing she never really gets.

That Sakura revolves herself entirely around Sasuke is alarming, and we don’t ever really see a moment where she grows out of that, admits her childhood crush was silly and shallow in comparison to the Sasuke she now knows, and (at the very least) dedicates herself to being a three dimensional person who happens to like Sasuke. This is another example of negative character growth.

In the fight against Kakashi during the Bell Test, Sakura fares worst of all three members of Team Seven. She is struck by a particularly emotional illusion of a dying Sasuke, and instead of going to help him, she shrieks and faints. Later, once she wakes up and actually manages to find Sasuke, she sees him in trouble and all she does is faint again. Sasuke has to free himself.

Interestingly, this is one of the first times we see Sakura in a moment where she really connects with and understands Sasuke. He has not only admitted to her the pain of loneliness, but now he admits to her that he has to fight alone and has a traumatic background.

Afterward, Sakura is never scolded for being so pathetic as to faint, and absurdly Naruto is the one tied to the stake instead. Later, once they become Team Seven, not only did her struggle against rule breaking prevent her from playing a hand in the victory - and not only is a potential moment of character growth avoided here - but she is never trained by or with anyone in order to become stronger afterwards. Again, she shows no motivation to become stronger on her own.

In the next arc, the Wave arc, Sakura mostly plays the part of the useless girl in the background on the sidelines. She does nothing of note, and spends much of the arc alternating between shrieking and crying. While Kakashi does note that she has amazing chakra control, he does nothing further with it - he sends her out every day to guard Tazuna instead.

The Chuunin Exam arc focuses much more on Sakura. Sakura was willing to give up during the Bell Test, but that instinct is brought full to bear here. Sakura wonders if she should take part in the Exam at all, and only after she successfully gets past an illusion and fends off an attacker does she decide to enter the Exam after all. This is an indication that Sakura has already internalized herself as pathetically weak, another sign of insecurity - hence her lack of motivation.

Sakura sees the classroom illusion before anyone else does (and as I said, this talent is rarely ever brought up again). She turns down Lee’s advances for superficial reasons - because of the way he looks, but also because she already likes Sasuke. She then essentially becomes a pawn for Lee and her two teammates to fight over, relegating herself to the sidelines instead of fighting Lee herself, another area of failed character growth. Her superficiality is also never brought up and dealt with.

She does well in the first test, being brilliant, despite her refusal to break the rules. She is in fact the only person besides Naruto who never divines the true meaning of the test, but this is never pointed out, another example of failed character growth where a potential interesting complication - Sakura’s dedication to the rules - could have come up instead. 

One thing that is notable is during this test, Sakura shows true concern for Naruto for the first time, growing as a person. She aced the test, but is willing to quit anyway to save his precious dream of becoming Hokage. Whether Naruto would have wanted what she was about to offer, however, is debatable. Sakura still may not understand Naruto very much, though this is finally the general time period when she comes to care about him.

In the second test, I have already discussed what happens to Sakura in detail. She is attacked, she cuts all her hair off, and she dedicates herself at last to becoming a stronger ninja. This is also the moment where she finally sees Sasuke for who he truly could be - Sasuke wakes up with the Cursed Seal firmly in place - and she still cares enough about him to try to stop him, a touching moment and a big moment for SasuSaku fans.

But this fledgling desire to grow stronger is seemingly diverted by what happens next. Though Sakura does fight bravely and fiercely against Ino, competitive at last - despite having no abilities - they knock each other out and neither advances to the finals. They do become friends again, a moment of character growth that puts some of their fan girlish asshole nature behind them, but neither dedicates themselves to getting stronger because neither advanced to the finals and that ends Sakura’s character growth for a long time.

Sakura fends off Kabuto’s sleep genjutsu but is relegated to damsel in distress during the Gaara attack - though it is worth noting that her defense of a teammate, emotional and selfless, reminds Gaara of Yashamaru, a moment that sparked an entire pairing fandom.

Sakura plays no significant part in much of what follows. During the Itachi attack she is nowhere to be seen, she lets Naruto go find Tsunade on his own even though she’s just as distraught by Sasuke’s coma, and during the Naruto-Sasuke fight after Sasuke wakes up she plays no part except to be the upset girl trying to get between them. This will become a common thread.

Sakura does find Sasuke and try to stop him from leaving the village when no one else does. She finally understands him that well. There is an emotional scene where she tries to get him to stay by promising to make his life here happy, and he thanks her for caring that much about who he truly is - and then knocks her out.

Infuriatingly, Sakura plays no part in the Rescue Sasuke arc that follows, even though she has more emotional investment than many other fighters. This is a huge case of negative character growth. Sakura becomes the damsel in distress asking Naruto to save Sasuke, and she waits behind for them to come home together.

Only when they do not - and only at the idea of getting her precious Sasuke back - does Sakura go to Tsunade and ask to be trained as a medic nin. Not exactly strong female progressive. It is worth noting, however, that in the period that follows, Sakura does go through much hardship to train under Tsunade and despite the extraordinary hard work she still succeeds.

So she is capable of that. Her motivations are just all wrong in the series, and she is never really allowed room for this to change.

Then of course there is the timeskip, which leads me to part two of the series.

Sakura starts out strong in part two. There’s no Sasuke to distract her attention, she’s friends with pretty much everyone in the series, she’s not a fangirl anymore, and she’s much stronger as Tsunade’s disciple. Early on, she even takes part in one of part two’s most popular fights, against Sasori. Sakura in general is strong in the saving Gaara arc - she obviously cares, but not for any sort of personal emotion reason, which is actually a big step for her character.

It should be noted, however, that in the Sasori fight, she battles as the puppet of a puppet master. So even this is a mixed bag: Sakura is using her own powers, but her strategy and movements are not her own at any point.

But in general, as the arc moves on, all of Sakura’s character sub-arcs become subsumed by Sasuke again as he makes the re-appearance as an enemy. She makes many Sasuke-related shifts throughout part two: She moves from wanting to save Sasuke, to realizing he can’t be saved and trying to seduce Naruto through lies into letting him go. (It’s her own way of admitting she cares about Naruto, but he realizes what she’s doing and makes the important point that he gives a shit about Sasuke too and he’s not just trying to get Sasuke back because of his promise to her.) Then at one point Sasuke tries to kill her, and after that she goes through the tortured part of “realizing he’s a horrible person but still being in love with him as he actually is.” Finally, she tries to kill him herself, but out of Twue Wuv, her willpower fails at the last minute.

In general, it’s important to note here not only that Sakura in part two still revolves around the missing Sasuke, but that all possible points of character strength are avoided. She lies to Naruto and he sees through it, making her look self centered. She tries to kill Sasuke herself, but in the end just can’t manage it. In spite of her love for Sasuke, she gives up on him before Naruto. 

And she just can’t let Sasuke go. Sakura’s problem here is that she does see Sasuke for who he truly is, and she still loves him. This is romantic, but also problematic for me because it was a simple shift. Sakura went from fangirling for who she thought Sasuke was, to being in love with who he really was, with no acknowledgment of the shift and character growth in between. Sakura’s arc still essentially revolves around Sasuke, as she moves from one kind of miserable obsession and adoration, to another.

And Sasuke does some pretty horrible things in this arc. He tortures her with a horrific illusion and tries to kill her, among other things. The fact that she never even seems to get angry about this was disturbing to many fans. Sakura never allows herself room to get angry on her own behalf with Sasuke, hence the constant failures in willpower.

And then of course she forgives him. He apologizes, she cries, they have a meaningful interaction later right before he leaves Konoha for a number of years, and she decides to wait for him.

Then in the manga, we skip right to Sakura being married to Sasuke - and still waiting for him. He’s off doing important missions, apparently never even asking for breaks in between them; she’s back in Konoha raising their kid what appears to be essentially alone. Traditionalist till the end and obsessed with Sasuke, she has uncomplainingly taken this up as her role.

And that’s it. That’s Sakura’s story. For me, it’s a tragic one. We never see much actual happy relationship between Sakura and Sasuke. As one fan said to me at the end of the series, “I feel conflicted. I should be happy for her, because she got what she always wanted… but he treated her like shit.”

And Sasuke does treat Sakura like shit. Does he love her? Yes, I truly believe he does by the end. And I truly believe she loves him for exactly who he is, in spite of the fact that many parts of their personalities do not sync up.

But that doesn’t really erase the fact that not once in the series did we see Sasuke go through a period where he regularly treats Sakura well - not even after his apology to her after the battle with Naruto.

One thing that should be noted is that Sakura is an excellent mother to their daughter Sarada. Her loving, nurturing, and protective instincts are strong as a mother. I am noting this because of Team Seven she is the only one who ever regularly becomes a functional, healthy parent.

And that’s the end of my long Sakura essay. Did I miss anything? Let me know in the comments!


	4. Hyuuga Hinata, Part One

Hyuuga Hinata

Physically

Hinata has thick, straight blue-black hair, pale skin, Hyuuga grey eyes with no pupils, and a round face. In fact, two traits aside, everything about her is very traditional Hyuuga clan. Those two traits are: her sweet, round, expressive face and her curvy body.

She is almost the perfect traditional Japanese girl, but interestingly, those expectations are subverted at the last second in the details. This is very Hinata: she is polite and soft spoken, but also not a vicious traditional fighter or even a traditional confident motherly figure.

Hinata’s hair is also a reflection of her, but in a different way from Sakura. Hinata seems to follow to the letter her clan’s desires for how a woman of her family and rank should wear her hair. When in part one, her hair is shorn above chin-level, we can see from the other pictures that this is traditional Hyuuga. When in part two, her hair is long, we can see from other pictures that this is traditional Hyuuga.

Possibly the only hint we have as to how Hinata might actually want her hair to look is in the post-series epilogue section. Finally free from her clan’s expectations, more confident and happy as Naruto’s wife, she wears her hair at a nice, practical chin level that looks very pretty on her.

Hinata only carries this hairdo, however, when she feels it is safely socially and clan proper to do so. This part of her is rarely brought forward by Kishimoto.

In Outfit

Hinata wears baggy, boyish clothes. She is not a very feminine woman in appearances. While the boyishness is not necessarily a problem - her pants and jacket are quite refreshing in a comic book main character love interest, as is again her lack of overt sexualization - the bagginess of her clothes is worrying.

While Hinata is never said to diet, she does hide her body a great deal, even as an older person in part two.

So the question becomes, does Hinata like her body? It’s hard to tell. She certainly always carries herself with painful shyness. It might not be a stretch to say that her big curves make her self conscious, so she uses her clothes to hide them.

But we know so little about Hinata outside of her crush on Naruto that her body self consciousness is somehow never touched upon. This would be an example of negative character development.

In Abilities

Hinata is a Hyuuga clan main family member. This means she has the Byakugan, which provides a kind of long distance X ray vision. She can also emanate sharp, highly controlled spurts of chakra from absolutely any point anywhere on her body. In a highly evolved Hyuuga, this can lead to full-body chakra dome shields and cutting techniques.

But for a more average Hyuuga, it simply means an expertise in Jyuuken or Gentle Fist. This is a Hyuuga hand to hand style of fighting which involves light, graceful, deadly taps and touches along key points of the opponent’s body. The Byakugan is used to see the opponent’s tenketsu points, or chakra openings, and those openings are then closed with taps of chakra that can cause extreme devastation to the internal organs near the tenketsu points within seconds.

It is refreshing to see the main character’s love interest being an expert in a vicious hand to hand style of fighting. Like Sakura, Hinata’s main area of expertise is unusual. However, complicating this, she is not portrayed as particularly talented or confident in her area of expertise, further complicating her character. She is said by enemies to be “too shy and kind” to make for a good fighter. Whether this is true… I will discuss later.

It must be added that Hinata is also extremely intelligent. She was the only other person in the Chuunin Exam first test classroom besides Sakura who was shown not to be cheating in order to pass the devastatingly difficult academic exam. Together with the highly controlled chakra she must cultivate as a Hyuuga, Hinata would also have been a good candidate to become an expert Tsunade-style Healer. Hinata already mixes her own herbal remedies and would have a very healing bedside nature, making her a great candidate even if she would not have been quite as academically and control technique savvy as the more serious Sakura. Seeing her inherit Tsunade’s temper would have been particularly amusing from such a shy, timid, and gentle girl.

As has been said before, medic nin are also badasses. They can not only heal and mix poison antidotes, but mix poisons, use anatomically precise senbon needles, use nerve attack taijutsu, and use chakra scalpels as hand knives. Tsunade disciples can in addition miraculously regenerate themselves using forehead seals, and use supernatural speed and strength. They are some of the most useful members of their teams, keeping everyone else alive, something that would have brought Hinata great psychological satisfaction. 

That this was never offered to her could be seen as an example of negative character growth.


	5. Hyuuga Hinata, Part Two

Likes, Dislikes, and Personality Structure

Hinata likes flower pressing and mixing herbal remedies, according to Kishimoto. So one could see her as a very feminine, crafty girl, perhaps with a love for gardens. Her favorite food is also baked sticky sweet buns, often with red bean jam jelly, so one could also see her as having a love for baking.

It should also be noted that like Sakura, Hinata has a pronounced sweet tooth. She has an unusual for Japan disliking for fancy seafood dishes, such as crab and shrimp and eel, and with her love for baking she may even prefer foreign cuisine.

In romance, Hinata is Sakura’s polar opposite. She delights in seeing people’s true selves, in accepting them just as they are, and she adores the warm, strong, confident, and unconventional. She loves, in other words, everything that her strict, official clan is supposed to hate. But Hinata seems to make it a point to accept all kinds of people - not just the ones she has a favoring towards. She is at the very least unfailingly polite and I don’t think ever once professes to openly dislike anyone.

Which brings me to my next point, which is that I see Hinata as an INFP. She is definitely an introvert, shy and retiring, quiet and soft-spoken. She is equally definitely an NF, idealistic, kind, sweet, even gentle, loving and accepting. She is in other words not the typical ninja…

… Which in turns brings me to why I chose INFP. INFPs have been said by many psychologists to be so imaginative, dreamy, kind, and idealistic that they have trouble both being accepted by others and accepting themselves. And that’s Hinata through and though. Abstract, off the ground, and daydreamy, INFPs are definitely more airy-fairy and also take their natural place as gentle Healers. (Another reason why being a medic might suit Hinata.)

We also know interestingly that Hinata is a Capricorn, according to Kishimoto. This is where Hinata’s more serious, traditional side comes through. Capricorns are serious and hardworking folk, are even at their most natural very ambitious.

This may be the side that Hinata has trouble manifesting in herself, after the childhood she’s had. As we will see in the canon section, though she tries hard to become stronger, she sadly is never really allowed by Kishimoto to succeed.

Back History Before Canon

Hinata is born the much vaunted heiress to the wealthy, prestigious, and stiff Hyuuga Clan main family. 

Two things complicate this early on for Hinata. First, she is not the natural at Hyuuga arts that her cousin Neji is. And second, she does not have the cold and fire, the down to earth nature that her younger sister Hanabi has.

Hinata spends her childhood being criticized for what she is not, instead of being appreciated for the kind, intelligent, and observant person she is. At some point, she also seems to lose her much kinder and gentler mother, a point that is neatly avoided in canon and is definitely a place of negative character development.

Eventually it gets to the point where she is pit against her own sister. The winner of the vicious fight gets to be clan heiress. Hinata has essentially been emotionally abused for most of her life. She cannot bear the idea of hurting her younger sister, so Hanabi wins the fight and is made clan heiress instead. This makes the already shy and under confident Hinata sink into what seems to be a deep depression, and as she gets older she starts wearing baggier clothes.

None of this end part is ever really dealt with. Hinata’s depression is never discussed, she is never allowed a chance to grow past her own shyness or her own body self consciousness. Her story revolves entirely around either her clan or Naruto. Similarly, we never see her mention let alone overcome the death of her mother.

Hinata forms a crush on Naruto after he saves her from some bullies when they are young children. While she does seem to see him for who he truly is - a warm and brave, unconventional person who never gives up - she also never feels brave enough to approach him. At the beginning of canon, she is such a back of the classroom wallflower that he literally has no idea who she is. Hinata instead confines herself to following Naruto around, watching him in secret, desperately wanting to help him but paralyzed by her own self loathing under-confidence into being unable to help him.

Which brings me to: Was Hinata’s clan right? Is she really too weak, kind, and gentle to make for a good ninja all along?

The evidence isn’t good. Even in part two she is openly said by multiple people to be pathetically weak - and this is after she has supposedly decided to try and change. Is this character arc ever brought to bear for Hinata? No. She never really becomes strong in the conventional ninja sense; her arc is instead usually only brought up in the context of either Naruto or her family.

However, despite this, I would argue that Hinata’s weakness is not inherent.

Just because Hinata was not as immediately natural as Neji, just because she wasn’t as much of a traditional Hyuuga as her sister Hanabi, this does not make Hinata weak. And not wanting to hurt her sister in a vicious battle pitting them against one another? This also does not make Hinata weak.

But Hinata is told so often she is weak and pathetic so early on, is outshone by those around her so early on, that she limits herself and never become stronger. Kurenai tells us once that early Hinata’s biggest problem in fights is that she gets depressed and gives up too easily. By part two, it may have already been too late - her strict clan may have set her too far behind.

But this is not natural weakness. This is the kind of weakness borne of psychological damage and constant lessons of inferiority.

And that has very real consequences. In Hinata’s feudal Japanese ninja world, strength is everything. So in Hinata’s eyes, she is nothing. In fact, she only seems to feel she becomes something around Naruto, whose support makes her feel the kind of bravery her clan has never allowed her to naturally feel. This reliance on Naruto is never dealt with, a sign of negative character development. Hinata never really learns how to become strong on her own. Similarly, she never even seems to make any of her own female friends.

This brings me to our last section… a complete analysis of Hinata in the canon series.


	6. Hyuuga Hinata, Part Three

Canon Analysis

Hinata really does not make a serious appearance in the anime, and does not make an appearance at all in the manga, until the Chuunin Exams.

She is described by Naruto as a kind of weird, quiet girl, a person of few words. This is how he apparently saw her in their Academy years. He also notes with confusion that she blushes and looks away whenever their eyes meet. This most poignantly might confuse Naruto because up until now most of the people in his life have not liked him. (He says later that for a long time after Hinata’s love confession in part two, he in so many words “did not know how to react.” His long pause before responding was out of socially awkward confusion, not lack of caring.) Hinata sees the good in Naruto, the troublemaking class clown ruffian who everyone resents, long before anyone else does.

Otherwise, our first impression of Hinata - besides her obvious yet silent crush - is that she’s soft spoken, even anxious, and always earnest in trying to help people to get along.

In the first test, she gets through the academic exam with her own extraordinary intellect, not needing the Byakugan even though she seems to divine the true point of the exam. But she is willing to lose points to help Naruto cheat so he can pass. Naruto refuses because he doesn’t want to get her in trouble, a move of selflessness that Hinata seems to deeply respect - just as she admired him saving her from those bullies long ago.

Hinata in fact shows much concern for Naruto in test one, also being distraught when it looks for a second like he might give up. That Naruto never give up may be very important to Hinata; what she admires most in him is indeed the fact that he never gives up. This may help Naruto to be a better person, but on the other hand it is a high standard to live up to that does not allow much room for folly.

This is brought to bear later in the Chuunin Exams. Hinata calmly helps her team ace the second test, but during the prelims she has to fight her more naturally talented and aggressive cousin Neji. Here her childhood really manifests itself, and here Naruto notices Hinata for the first time - by seeing her attempt to be strong not unlike his own, though made less successful by Kishimoto, and by wanting to protect her. The Neji-Hinata fight is a brutal battle that is hard to repeat blow for blow, so let me just note what seemed to me the most important aspects.

First, Hinata’s only crutch against being crippled by her awful childhood… is Naruto. In a romantic and yet worrying moment, Hinata only shows any kind of fire during battle when Naruto is there cheering her on. He manages to bolster her even after Neji has brutally reminded Hinata of the constant emotional abuse she has suffered at the hands of her family. Though she does lose, Kurenai says of Hinata when Hinata fights harder with Naruto cheering her on: “I have never seen that girl fight with eyes like that before.” 

Hinata even copies Naruto’s way of the ninja: “I never give up. That’s my way of the ninja.” In this era, I see Hinata’s crush on Naruto not as a teenager’s crush, but as a child’s idolization. 

I should add that I think this changes during part two. Please don’t kill me, NaruHina fans, I like the pairing. It’s very sweet, with Hinata understanding Naruto and Naruto cheering Hinata on. I just think Hinata’s idolization of Naruto isn’t entirely healthy for either character. Naruto is paired with someone who sees him as a kind of idol figure, while Hinata is never allowed to become her own strong person past that idolization. Hinata sees Naruto for who he truly is, yes, but she also demands he show the best of himself all the time which is not entirely realistic.

Again, it’s not because Hinata’s a terrible person, either. I think Naruto is Hinata’s crutch against her brutal childhood. It would have been cool to see Hinata come to see Naruto as more fallible, and to see Hinata go through a period where she became her own strong person. Give me a fic with that and I have zero problems with this pairing.

But there’s another important part of this fight, besides Neji’s essentially abusive viciousness. (Sorry, I call it the way I see it.) Despite nearly being killed by her cousin, Hinata feels tender sympathy for him. Observant of others to the end, she is the one to point out that he might have been more damaged by their clan than her - even as he is making her vomit blood.

Hinata also defies Neji on one important measure: She didn’t enter the Exam to avoid being a burden to her team. She entered the Exam to try to change and become a stronger ninja. 

Later, in part two, it is stated that Hinata’s dream fight is still a rematch with Neji as a stronger ninja.

Why is this important to me? Because it’s one of the only instances we have of canon telling us that Hinata wants to become strong outside of her crush on Naruto.

In the manga, we don’t get much of Hinata fighting or even being a major character throughout the rest of part one. (In my dream story, Hinata plays just as important a part as canon Team Seven. I do not dislike Hinata, I actually adore her character and think she doesn’t get enough love.) She should have played a bigger part in Naruto avenging her and changing Neji’s character, but that was apparently a Boys Only fight. We never even see a changed Neji apologize to Hinata the way Hiashi apologizes to him.

So let’s move on to part two. Does Hinata ever achieve the strength she desires…?

Not really.

Not in the manga, anyway. Manga Hinata does play a minor assistant part in certain arcs. She is a fair, competent ninja. But in my opinion Kishimoto cheats her. We don’t see her supporting a pregnant Kurenai, for example, or doing any other independent things. And she never seems to become an amazing fighter or play a part in any important battles. Under my theory, by that point without some major character changes it might have been too late.

And yes, we do know this because of the heartbreaking moment when Hinata leaps between Pain and a crippled, prone Naruto, finally openly declaring she loves Naruto for the first time. Hinata does fight, but Pain points out how pathetic her fighting truly is. Do I see that criticism as valid? Yes, for two reasons besides what we actually witness.

First, and less importantly, because Pain is not the kind of dick to lie and emotionally manipulate his opponents. He is a gigantic dick by that point in the timeline in plenty of other ways, but Pain like many Naruto villains sees himself on this interesting point of being on the moral higher ground. Lying about an opponent’s abilities would not gel with Pain’s sense of himself as the one in the right.

But second, and more importantly, because Hinata seems ready to smilingly die for Naruto in this scene. It is almost a romantic suicide scene for me. The idea of dying for Naruto almost seems to make Hinata happy. She doesn’t seem to be trying to seriously fight; she actually seems to appreciate the idea of dying in a romantic self sacrifice.

This part of Hinata is never dealt with when Naruto fights again for Hinata and Sakura heals her sorrowfully afterwards. And is this negative character development?

YES. YES IT IS.

Hinata doesn’t play a huge part again - rather like Sakura with Sasuke - until towards the end when Neji steps in front of an attack during the final battle and dies for her. Once again, she stands in front of Naruto during an attack, but this time, Neji steps in front of her. Hinata seems genuinely and extremely distraught when Neji dies, our first instance proving that they are loving family once again and not just distant friends by the time he passes. (Neji is by the way the only Hyuuga allowed to meaningfully change until the post-series epilogue section, and we didn’t even see much of that, which disappoints me.)

And then Naruto considers giving up over Neji’s death. This is the exact opposite of what Neji would have wanted, but it’s also an instance of Naruto the idol having feet of clay. And Hinata?

She slaps him. Literally hits him right there on the battlefield.

It is so shocking from such a timid and gentle girl that Naruto’s resolve returns, and he and Hinata face the great final peril together holding hands. Any sort of contact is considered a big deal in Japanese culture, so this may even be the beginning of their relationship. Naruto even admits at one point that it only took him that long because he had no idea what to do with someone “loving” him.

Two people overcoming so much and facing the final battle standing side by side holding hands… was a much more widely palatable pairing for a huge number of fans, I think. I don’t hear near the amount of criticism for NaruHina that I do for SasuSaku. Whether that’s fair is debatable.

Hinata’s greatest wish is shown in one of her final scenes. She is together, peaceful and serene and domestic, sitting side by side on a bench with Naruto as her friendly cousin and sister are nearby. Neji of course is passed, and Hinata still seems to wish for a reconciliation with Hanabi - which it must be added she gets post series when Hanabi starts to love her children.

But what I find fascinating is that Hinata’s father, her chief abuser, plays no part in her greatest wish scene. In Hinata’s fondest dreams, her father doesn’t exist - he may even perhaps be passed alongside her mother.

Post series, Hinata has taken up a domestic role for her husband Naruto, present leader of the village. She supports him every step of the way, though it must be noted that she still does not think to try to take any of his stress off of his shoulders. Still, she supports and understands him, they love each other, and they have children together that they both get a hand in raising. The anime even shows her aging father and clan head sister having a reconciliation of sorts with Hinata.

After everything she’s been through, Hinata’s story finally deservedly ends on a high note. Despite all this… was so much of her character growth cheated?

I’ve spelled out everything I found relevant. I’ll leave you to decide.

Next character up on the agenda? This one’s going to be fun: Gaara.


End file.
